Stars
by Lost to the Hoping
Summary: Sakura's been kidnapped; Naruto injured. Gaara *will* get her back.


**Stars**

**Search and Rescue**

**Characters: GaaraxSakura (implied), mentions of others**

**Description: Sakura's been kidnapped; Naruto injured. Gaara *will* get her back.**

**Rating: K+**

**Dedication: All you wonderful GaaSaku writers out there! Love ya! ^^**

xXx

Suna owed Konoha - and Naruto - a favor. Naruto firmly declined it, but Gaara was adamant. So, when one Haruno Sakura went missing and a half-dead Naruto was found, he took the matter to heart. The second Naruto pleaded for Gaara to save her, Gaara agreed. Naruto slumped into an exhausted, relieved sleep, and Gaara set about making preparations. He was leaving Kankuro in control of protecting the village while he was gone, and Temari - complete with an ANBU guard - would accompany him.

Gaara didn't care, so long as they didn't get in his way.

xXx

She pushed her way through a fog of inky blackness, struggling against the weight of a drugged sleep. Someone had captured her, but her mind was far too muddled at the moment to bother wondering who. Instead, she merely focused on waking up. The darkness receded some, but there was a prick in her arm after she moaned with the effort, and the darkness swarmed her like locusts.

She sighed and relaxed, welcoming it.

xXx

They arrived at the spot on the border between Wind and Fire countries a day and a half after they set off, and Gaara immediately set to investigating the scene of Haruno's capture. They found drag marks that went South for five feet before vanishing, broken branches further on in the same direction... and blood indicating North. Gaara split up their group and went South, sending Temari and her squad North.

He would get her back. He'd promised Naruto.

xXx

The next time she became aware, she focused on not moving rather than waking up. The fog seeped away more slowly this time, but eventually, she started to notice things around her, and was able to concentrate on keeping her breathing even at the same time as she catalogued her injuries. There were quite a few of them. Broken left tibia, shattered right femur - fuck, why didn't that hurt? It should hurt like a bitch right now - and... she couldn't feel her right arm past her elbow. Crap.

Okay, Sakura, don't panic. Breathe, and listen.

xXx

They'd found her. She was being held by Sound nin in a mountain cave South-East of Sand. As far as they could see, there were two four-man squads - one led by a Chunin, the other by a Jonin - and two hired guards. The ninja teams switched off, taking turns guarding Sakura and patrolling the compound, and the guards stood on either side of Sakura's bed, unmoving unless one of them were sleeping. One ninja of each of the teams was sleeping at all times, switching off every hour.

Ultimately, it was a grueling, exhausting schedule, and Gaara was about to exploit it's weaknesses.

xXx

There were at least three men in the room with her, two to her right (one a little further down) and at least one near her feet. In fact, he appeared to be poking at her broken tibia. She was a little concerned that she couldn't feel any pain from it, though the echos of pain were clearly there, allowing her to see the extent of her injuries. Near her head, there was a soft dripping sound, and it finally clicked. Morphine. Or something similar. They had her on pain drugs, keeping her painless and docile. Until they got what they wanted.

She prayed to the gods that they didn't get that any time soon.

xXx

He dropped down behind the Jonin leader of the squad that patrolled the grounds, deadly silent, and the man was dead before he even realized Gaara was there. The Kazekage spotted one of his men and nodded to him before darting off in the direction of Sakura.

They never knew what hit them.

xXx

Sakura woke up with a headache. She just barely remembered one of her guards finally noticing that she was awake and bashing her upside the head. Now she was draped over someone's back, flying through the trees. She watched them go by, groggy with sleep, and wondered what had happened.

The man carrying her grunted and then dropped to the ground.

xXx

Gaara stopped suddenly, and then dropped to the ground, avoiding a spray of kunai - barely. Sakura whimpered from his back and tightened her grip around his neck, almost choking him. He decided he should tell her who he was. "Haruno... Stop. I'm the Kazekage. You're safe," he said softly, turning his head to peer into her face.

Green eyes stared back, glazed slightly from sleep and the drugs they'd used to keep her under. "Nng... Gaara?" she mumbled.

xXx

Sakura watched as he nodded, then made a motion toward one of the men with them and took off. She faintly recognized the man as a Suna ANBU. As Gaara ran, alternating between trees and the ground, Sakura relaxed against him and clutched his waist with her thighs, where he was propping her up.

"Thank you," she whispered and slept.

xXx

Naruto was already mostly recovered by the time they returned to Suna, though Sakura still slept soundly. She appeared to have put herself in some sort of recuperative coma, which impressed the med-nins at the Sand Medical Corps. The coma allowed her to rest, distributing her medic chakra through her body to heal her injuries more rapidly than regular sleep would have done. Luckily, though she had broken bones, they didn't need to be set. Gaara wondered if she'd done that, or if they just hadn't strayed from where they were supposed to be.

It was a mystery that he'd never learn the answer to.

xXx

**R&R! XD I hope you liked! ^^**


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